Skills
There are 35 skills in Mystera, which you "discover" by gaining some experience. Once discovered, a skill will show up in your Character Skills list, which can be accessed from your Character panel, hitting K if you're on PC, or typing /skills. If you die you will lose 5% of your experience in each skill, but this amount is reduced at lower levels. Armor Skills These skills help mitigate incoming damage to your character. * (Mitigation scaling needs testing for accuracy.) Light Armor Light armor affords a fair amount of protection, but not as much as medium or heavy armor. But exchange you gain a +10% bonus to dodge, and there are no movement speed penalties. A higher light armor skill mitigates more damage per point of defense. * The first 30 times you're hit by a mob, you'll gain 3xp per point of damage. Medium Armor Medium armor mitigates more damage than light armor does, but has a -50 movement speed penalty in combat and has no bonuses or penalties to dodge. A higher medium armor skill mitigates more damage per point of defense. * The first 30 times you're hit by a mob, you'll gain 3xp per point of damage. Heavy Armor Heavy armor offers the best mitigation per point of defense, but has a -100 movement speed penalty in combat and a -20% penalty to dodge, making you more vulnerable to armor piercing attacks. A higher heavy armor skill mitigates more damage per point of defense. * The first 30 times you're hit by a mob, you'll gain 3xp per point of damage. Unarmored While not much recommended since it gives less protection than any of the actual armor skills (and the loss in defense from lack of armor), the unarmored skill does afford you some mitigation and a +20% bonus to dodge if you get caught with no armor equipped. * The first 30 times you're hit by a mob, you'll gain 3xp per point of damage. Shield Block Equipping a shield gives a chance to block attacks (up to 60% at level 100 shield block) but slows your attacks by 400ms. Blocked damage is reduced to 5-25%, and armor piercing damage can also be blocked which makes shields invaluable against many of the tougher monster types. You will always be hit for at least one damage. * You gain 10 experience in shield block each time you block a hit. Gathering skills Chopping Chopping skill increases the wood you get from trees with your hands or tools: axes are strongly recommended give a significant hidden bonus to chopping skill depending on the quality of the axe (scaling from stone to steel). Trees have either 40 or 60 uses, but they are not always consumed, so at higher chopping levels you can get more wood per tree. Trees will occasionally leave behind a pinecone which can be planted with the Farming skill. * Each use of a tree grants 2 chopping experience. Farming You get farming experience from planting seeds, and it increases the speed at which plants grow and reduces the chance for the plant to wither, which in turn reduces water consumption from adjacent tiles (a withered plant will always return one seed, but will despawn after a few minutes). You can plant in dirt tiles after clearing the grass with a shovel or hoe, but you cannot plant on sand or grass. You can also water plants with buckets of water, or simply plant next to a water source (aka "the vastly preferable method"). Water will hasten plant growth significantly and also reduce withering. * Planting a seed grants 20 farming experience. Fishing You can use a fishing rod and worms to fish in deep water tiles. Your cast rating (A+ through F-) determines how quickly you are likely to catch a fish, but is not related to its size. A higher fishing skill increases the speed at which you can catch fish and the size of the fish you can catch. * Fishing experience (and fish meat quantity) is based on the size of the fish caught. Hotspot While fishing in Galebrook you will occasionally receive directions ("You suspect more fish to the south...") that will lead you in a general cardinal direction. When instead the prompt reads "There seems to be a lot of fish here!" you have found the hotspot, a 30x30 area where you can catch fish much, much faster. Foraging * A higher foraging skill increases the chance of gaining materials from bushes. * Dye, holly, salmonberry, and spice bushes all yield different materials. * Foraging will also yield seeds that can be replanted using the Farming skill. Mining * A higher mining skill increases the chance of gaining materials from a rock. * Pickaxes have a hidden mining bonus that increases with the quality of the pickaxe(Starting from stone all the way up to steel. * Different rocks can be found in different biomes that yield different materials. * Each use of a rock grants 1 mining experience. Digging * A higher digging skill increases the effectiveness of shovel-related activities. * Shovels can be used to clear grass, floor, road, and water tiles, and gather materials. Chance while digging in different biomes: * Digging in dirt can produce dirt and worms. * Digging in dirt can also produce a deep water tile at random. * Digging in sand can produce bones. * Digging in snow can produce obsidian. Water * Shoveling a terrain tile next to deep water will produce shallow water. * Shoveling a shallow water tile next to deep water will produce deep water. * Shoveling a shallow water tile not next to deep water will produce a terrain tile. * Shoveling deep water will turn it into shallow water. Tilling A simple skill to clear grass from nature tiles with a hoe. Doing so can collect worms. * You gain some tilling experience each time you use a hoe to clear grass from a dirt tile. (It is not recommended that you invest time in upgrading this skill to its maximum level) Combat Skills These skills boost your damage (by 1 every 2 levels) depending on what you're fighting. Assassin The assassin skill increases damage against other player characters. You gain assassin experience by killing other players, defeating other players in duels, or killing Chaos NPCs. You gain significantly less experience from killing lower level players. Take care to know your server's general stance on PvP activity... Hunting The hunting skill increases damage against all NPCs. Each creature/monster type gives a unique amount of hunting experience when defeated; killing non-hostile creatures or the same type of creature/monster repeatedly suppresses experience to 10%, while alternating between aggressive monster types will yield max hunting experience. Weapon Skills These skills boost your damage (1 per 5 levels) and precision (0.5 per level) with different weapons: * Archery: Requires arrows, cannot be trained on a target dummy. * Axe: Weapon skill does not effect chopping; fairly high damage but slower attack speed. * Clubbing: Premiere PvP weapon type, 60% armor penetration. * Dagger: Highest single-target damage except against players in heavy armor. * Hammer: Does not affect destruction; 50%(?) armor penetration, attacks 4 squares in an inverse T. * Pickaxe: Weapon skill does not affect mining; very poor weapon choice. * Spear: Can reach two squares, useful for kiting without being hit. * Sword: Best multi-target weapon in the game, attacks 3 squares at once. * Unarmed: If you have knuckle weapons or no weapons equipped. After level 10 Unarmed if no weapons are equipped you have a chance to knock your target back one square. If you knock a target back when they are against an obstacle you will swap places with them. Knock backs will not occur while using knuckle weapons. Support skills Exploration * Travel across the island and underground. * Higher levels yield a greater increase to traveling speed. * Exploration XP is earned by entering new 10x10 sectors. (dev confirmed) Crafting * Creating items from the "Build" menu with various resources. * Higher levels yield increased chance of getting +1 to +3 on equipment. Construction * Creating structures (walls, roads, towers, gates) from the "Build" menu with various resources. * Higher levels yield higher health for the buildings. Destruction * Attacking and destroying walls, towers, and gates built by other players. * Higher levels yield increased damage to other players structures. Cooking * Putting raw meat and egg onto a lit campfire or fire pit. * Higher levels yield increased hunger regeneration while eating. Smelting * Melting down ores in a clay pot over a campfire or fire pit to make metals. * Higher levels yield increased chance for bonus metals. Repairing * Using a repair kit on walls, gates, and equipment. * Higher levels yield increased repaired % rate. Questing * Completing various tasks and quests in the game. * Higher levels yield better items from chests. Knitting * Equipping knitting needles and creating cloth based armor using the "Knit" menu. * Knitting an item may fail and require to restart at 0% with no loss of resources. Smithing * Equipping a mallet and hammering equipment together with 3 types of gems to get an enchant. * Higher levels yield increased completion % rate and reduced chance of equipment shatter on successful attempt with multiple enchants. * Smithing equipment and gems may fail and require to restart at 0% with no loss of resources. * Equipment has a % chance to shatter the more enchants on the item.